Ecommerce in Romania was worth €1.4 billion in 2015

Ecommerce in Romania has grown from 1.1 billion euros in 2014 to approximately 1.4 billion euros last year. About 6.7 million Romanians now have experience with shopping online, while 1.4 million inhabitants used a mobile device to buy something online.

The estimated value of the online retail industry in Romania comes from GPeC, a huge ecommerce event in Romania, as well as a big online shops community. It says that some companies even consider the value to be closer to 1.5 billion euros.

Huge growth of mobile shopping in Romania
Romania has about 19.8 million inhabitants, out of which 13 million are aged 16 to 55 years old. The country has 11 million internet users and of these people, 6.7 million have shopped online at least once in their life.

Although most Romanians prefer to shop online using their pc or laptop, the use of mobile devices has grown dramatically last year. Last year, 1.4 million Romanian online shoppers used a mobile device to complete a purchase, while 850.000 used a mobile shopping app to order something online. “If we look at the last months of 2015, over 50% of the key online shops traffic has been generated by mobile devices”, GPeC explains.

Popular online payment methods in Romania
In Romania, an online shopper makes an average of 8.2 purchases per year, up to 8.1 in 2014. When they order something, Romanian consumers prefer to pay with cash on delivery, with 90 percent of online shopping being paid this way. Online card payments account for only 6 or 7 percent, while 3 to 4 percent is done through other payment methods, such as online banking and micropayments via SMS. And based on data from Visa, it appears that Romanian people spend more money in foreign online shops (average order value of €58) than at local ecommerce websites (€40).

5,000 online shops in Romania
GPeC estimates there are about 5,000 online shops active in Romania, a number that has remained constant last year. There may be over 20,000 websites with a .ro domain that have the ‘Add to cart’ functionality, but only 5,000 of these websites generate significant traffic and orders, the organization says. It estimates that out of these online shops, approximately 200 are big and medium businesses, exceeding 1 million euros in annual turnover.

Romanians want free delivery
Based on online purchases by Romanian consumers, the most popular product category is consumer electronics. This is followed by fashion & beauty, home & deco and kids & toys. And just as in other countries, for Romanians the price is no longer the most important factor when they choose to shop online. The main services they are looking for online are free delivery, discounts and promotional campaigns, free returns and fast delivery.